Please Come to Boston - Strange Adventures 206

Strange Adventures #206 (November 1967)(cover by George Roussos and Mike Sekowsky)
"An Eye for an Eye!"
Arnold Drake-Neal Adams/George Roussos

Doug: Name a character who you know next to almost-nothing about, but that intrigues you. Got one (or two?). Deadman's mine. If memory serves, and that's shaky ground these days, two of the Brave & the Bolds (#79 and #104) I've reviewed are the only Deadman comics I've read. Well, aside from his appearance in Kingdom Come. The premise is interesting to me: a man murdered who is given the power to find his own killer. That power includes the ability to see and hear all that goes on around him -- but not touch, and no one else will feel his presence. The kicker is that he can possess anyone at any time -- their mind and body. They won't, however, remember a thing. From Deadman's intro/origin in the previous issue:

This is Deadman -- the spirit of one man in the bodies of others -- moving from life to life, to find the man who brought him... Death! Follow him in the Strangest Adventure series of them all!

Boston Brand was truly a Deadman as far as the world was concerned. Naturally that limited the potential for any interaction with DC's other heroes, but it didn't stop Brand's ability (and willingness) to be manipulative of the living who crossed his from making things interesting.

You know you want a 100-Word Review...

Circus aerialist (and part owner) Boston Brand, a brusque fellow in life, has been murdered. But the deity Rama Kushna has offered Brand a gift – the powers necessary to find his killer. The first suspect is Jeff Carling, the lowlife brother of Lorna, one of the circus girls who was sweet on Brand. Jeff’s come looking for money. But Deadman possesses Carling’s body, only to find out that the plot is thicker than imagined. In a whirlwind of biker gangs, mob hits, and payoffs, Deadman manages to find that a) Carling was not his killer and b) exonerate Carling of a murder rap.

The Good: I cannot complain about anything related to the execution of this story. Although only Boston Brand's second appearance, I felt like the creators got me up to speed on the origin story, the powers, the cast, etc. From the splash page, the art is light years ahead of what we saw in the previous issue. I don't necessarily want to denigrate the work of Carmine Infantino and George Roussos. Strange Adventures #205 is actually a nice-looking book! But c'mon... lay it next to the work of Neal Adams and... Yeah, I know Adams himself has detractors. I am not among that camp. While not possessing the pedigree of a career that began in the Golden Age, such as Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, et al., Adams now has around 50 years behind him so must certainly be a consideration in that "greatest of all time" conversation we had a few weeks ago. Here's a side-by-side of a portion of Deadman's origin for your own assessment:

Adams wanted to put his stamp on the book and character -- it's pretty obvious in that only 30 days after Deadman's first appearance readers were given a detailed origin recap complete with Deadman's "death", and a survey of his cast of characters and of his powers. Again, for me I thought this was excellent; I didn't read the first issue until after completing this one. Not sure how many other kids would have done that back in '67, but there had to be a few.

Arnold Drake's dialogue was fun. It was maybe a little on the Silver-Agey side, but that was what I expected. Marvelites should recognize Drake's name from his work on early issues of the X-Men, Captain Marvel, and as the creator of some group called the Guardians of the Galaxy (yeah, like that'll last...). Some of the characters in the story might have been predictable, but I think that was part of the hook in getting this new book off the ground. Let the readers go along for the ride with Boston Brand, discovering things even a second or two before our protagonist. Sort of like audience participation.

There was no baddie in the story (although there were a few unsavory types), outside of the knowledge that somewhere lurks the unseen assassin from the previous issue. That was fine, as this traveling mystery show had so much potential that Deadman didn't need a rogues gallery -- his rogue could be anyone! And that brings me back to the wonderful potential of the character -- this could be told as an all-ages story, or easily as an "adult" type of tale (face it -- Brand can inhabit any body he wants and make said occupy-ee do and say whatever Brand wants). With the god Rama Kushna ever present (though not ever seen other than as emanating from other sentient beings), a foray to the world of the occult was always possible as well.

Notice the fellow in the samples who looks like Guy Gardner! Of course that's not the way ol' Guy looked back in the day, but the resemblance to the character we'd come to loathe post-Crisis is uncanny!

The Bad: I can't decide what to say about the coloring here. More accurately it's re-coloring. Sometime on this space Karen and I discussed that this newer method sort of enhanced the Tales of Asgard trade, giving it a "storybook" look. We didn't, however, care for it as much in the Chronicles of Conan trades. Years ago, Neal Adams fell in love with computer coloring, and as many of you know (see some of the Batman reviews here) he has insisted on recoloring all of his material that gets reprinted. The entire Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams series of hardcovers (now available as trade paperbacks) is recolored, as is the trade I am reading/scanning from. Part of me wants to chuck this a rung lower into the "Ugly" category, but I suppose I can leave it here. It didn't prohibit me from enjoying the story. It may have inhibited that joy, but it didn't stop me in my tracks. Honestly, I'd like to see the four-color version for comparison's sake. And Adams has long been fascinated with color. For those of you who don't know, when he got to DC from Marvel he was influential in improving DC's color palette. Read a wonderful and recent explanation of this history here.

The Ugly: As usual, nothing much to say here, unless you find yourself particularly offended by the coloring. Then we could slide that from "bad" to "ugly".

I look forward to reading more from this trade in the future. It's stretched me a bit, but I've found this very appealing.

That Zany Bob Haney: The Brave and the Bold 79

The Brave and the Bold #79 (August/September 1968)
"The Track of the Hook!"
Bob Haney-Neal Adams

Doug:  It's been about a month since we last visited the Haney-verse, so we're about due for another journey to the land of the bizarre, where continuity and characterizations are handcuffs for lesser writers.  In August, we peeked in on B&B #104, a Batman-Deadman team-up with a tragic ending.  Several of our commenters recommended the first pairing of these guys so today B&B #79 is the review of choice.  It's a late-Silver Age yarn and it breaks from our trend of examining the Jim Aparo issues.  You'll see by the credits just above that none other than Neal Adams provided the pencils and inks.  As I'll be providing art samples from the hardcover Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams, volume 1, you can add "colorist" to Adams' list of credits.  Onward...

Doug: Chronologically, this was Deadman's 10th appearance -- he'd been in print right at a year by the time this issue saw the spinner racks.  And not having read any of the Strange Adventures tales (yet), I'm going to suppose that this was his first interaction with anyone else in the DCU.  So this issue specifically begs the conversation -- were team-up books written for literary posterity, or as marketing vehicles for the co-stars?  Hey, it's like a "Discuss" within a comic review!  We begin as we often do, with a crime going down.  We see an assailant with a hook-hand and a gun, and four panels into the story there's a homicide.  The splash takes place a few minutes later, as Commissioner Gordon, the Batman, and Deadman have approached the corpse.  Batman of course IDs the guy, seemingly knowing every hood of any caliber in Gotham City.  In Haney's first affront to characterization, the Batman utters, "He's Whitey Marsh, Commissioner... small-time drifter and jack-of-all-rackets!  No connection between him and the big crime syndicate we're after... just a routine rub-out!"  Deadman, on the other hand, gets it -- he says to himself, "No murder is ever routine!  Every life counts... means something!  Every killing's gotta be avenged!"  And away we go!

Doug:  The antagonist is soon introduced to us in the form of "Kubla" Kaine, aka Carleton K. Kaine -- newspaper magnate.  Kaine's intent on exposing the crime syndicate and chastises Gordon and the Batman for not putting them away.  This was a little funny to me, as we're often exposed to storylines where Batman is working outside the law, with the law in fact on his tail!  And to make matters worse, Batman and Gordon have a disagreement as to who the top dog is.  Gordon thinks "The King" is Big Jim Coltrane, while Batman is leaning toward Jack LeSabre.  Kaine jumps on their impromptu feud and threatens to force their hands in his papers.  Just then, a mousy fellow emerges from the shadows and claims to have seen the murder.  He begins to talk, and right away mentions that the killer had a hook.  Deadman, drifting above the scene, zeroes in on that single word -- for it was a man wearing a hook on his arm who shot Boston Brand.

Doug:  Batman turns to leave, largely to get away from Kaine.  As he exits, Deadman is desperate to stop him.  The only way our phantom-hero can do so is to inhabit the body of another, taking it over.  He does so, to a passerby, and has the man put a hand on the Batman's shoulder.  Deadman has the guy say that he's Eddie Marsh, Whitey's brother.  Batman doesn't buy it, as Whitey had no brother!  Even more desperate, Deadman now has the guy take a swing at Batman, which connects.  Again he punches the Dark Knight, but as he begins to come to his senses Deadman realizes he must flee the man's body.  Of course he does so just as Batman lands a shot of his own.  Kaine's still present as they guy, now in control of his own faculties, accuses the Batman of assault.  This isn't going well.  Batman smashes the camera of one of Kaine's flunkies and swings away before Gordon can arrest him (see, this is all just a little weird -- but that's a Bob Haney story for ya!).

Doug:  Deadman pursues Batman, and even saves him from being run down by a mob car.  Deadman swoops down and into Batman's body, causing him to leap from harm's way.  And who should happen along at the same moment but Alfred?  "Batman" is pulled into the Rolls Royce by his faithful butler, and it's Deadman who now finds himself in that position of playing along.  Entering Wayne Manor, the secret's up immediately.  Deadman spies a tape recorder on a table, and as soon as Alfred leaves the room, he makes use of it.  It's a now-restored Batman who hears the tape, in his own voice!  On it, Deadman recounted his origin, and his dilemma -- that he would be able to inhabit the bodies of the living until he found his killer, the Hook, and avenged his own death.  Batman is fascinated by this, and embraces the presence of Deadman in the room.

Doug:  Caring nothing of his secret identity, Bruce Wayne opening speaks to Deadman, always assuming he is present.  Alfred take the two heroes to Kaine's mansion, a strange pyramid-looking domicile named "Xanadu".  As Wayne dines with Kaine, Deadman takes over the body of one of the servants.  Bruce had told him that Kaine keeps exhaustive records on everyone in Gotham, good and bad -- perhaps Deadman can get some information on the syndicate.  He does, and rules out Marsh's role as a leader, instead finding plenty on Le Sabre.  Wayne leaves abruptly, and while the drive from the mansion, Deadman invades Alfred's body so he and Bruce can converse.  Deadman holds Batman to the deal to find the hook.  As they drive, Batman notices Willie Pigeon, the stoolie.  Batman leaps from the car, Deadman in pursuit, and Alfred wonders what the heck just happened...

Doug:  Pigeon runs, and as he heads to a subway tunnel Deadman invades the body of an old man.  Willie didn't have a chance.  He's tripped, and it's Batman and some random old guy interrogating him!  Pigeon fingers a Monk Manville, so it's off to find him.  But when they do, the apartment's vacant.   Inside, however, they find a photo of Monk holding a tommy gun -- but with no hook!  So there're at another dead end.  Until Batman reads a caption on the back of the photo -- a caption that says Monk Manville's real name is Max Chill!  The guy they're looking for is the brother of the thug who killed the Batman's parents!  I need to take a breath...  Can you believe how dense Haney's stories are?  I mean, he throws everything in but the kitchen sink and there are so many twists and turns along the way.  As I said in one of the last B&B reviews I wrote, I have come to appreciate Haney's style (goofy as it can be at times).

Doug:  Thinking he missed something while trailing Whitey Marsh, Batman and Deadman double back to Whitey's Garage.  There, they look at a control panel.  Having paid no attention to it earlier, Batman pushes some of the levers, and a wall recedes to reveal stacks of slot machines.  Whitey was running a gambling operation for the syndicate after all.  Suddenly, Max Chill (aka Monk Manville) appears from around a corner... and wearing a hook on his right arm!  Deadman had invaded Batman's body, hoping to take Chill on his own -- and when Chill does appear with the hook Deadman cannot believe his eyes!  But wait -- Deadman recalls that The Hook wore it on his left arm -- Max Chill ain't the guy!  As Chill fires at "Batman", Deadman hurls a bunch of coins at him.  Chill isn't fazed, and manages to cut the body of Batman a few times in the fracas.  Deadman decides he cannot control the Dark Knight's body as well as Batman can his own, so flees at the moment Chill is about to deliver a death blow.  But Batman rights himself quickly enough, and his kick sends Chill back into the pile of slot machines.  They topple over on top of him; but before he dies he tells Batman that the guy he wants, is "the Paymaster" at Easy Loans.

Doug:  Tracking this new lead, Batman and Deadman find that the loan guy has been offed already.  The only clue they can find is a torn piece of paper that reads "Sacred River Account".  Batman recalls a poem by Coleridge called "Kubla Khan", where the king inhabited a palace called "Xanadu".  And the sacred river "Alf" led up to it.  Knowing that a creek ran next to Kaine's mansion, Batman and Deadman commandeer a boat and head upstream.  Invading the residence, a scuffle takes place.  Kaine attacks Batma with a katana.  Two henchmen answer a summons from Kaine, but Deadman invades one guys' body and takes out his partner.  Batman, meanwhile, is having problems.  His cape is cut off near his shoulders (but remains scalloped, strangely).  Batman feels himself standing on a trap door, and as it opens he lunges for Kaine.  Striking him and knocking him back, they tussle.  However, the butler recovered from Deadman's initial attack and begins to level a gun at Batman's back.  As Deadman rushes in invade him, the gun goes off.  Fortunately, and as fate would have it, the bullet hits Kaine's sword, deflecting right into his heart.  The adventure, the syndicate operation mystery, and the search for The Hook is over.  Batman and Deadman part on solid terms, Deadman to resume his search for his murderer.

Doug:  This was a good story, although like I said above a bit willy-nilly.  Adams' art, however, seemed a bit off at times.  While I understand this was relatively early in his Batman illustrating, there were times when I felt the art segue into a Carmine Infantino or Nick Cardy motif (I know, you could certainly do worse).  And the "updated" coloring -- while I've liked it in the Tales of Asgard series we looked at, and the Chronicles of Conan reprints, here it just seems to be too much.  There were a few times when Adams seemed to get really obnoxious with whites.  Give me the four-color reprinting we've been looking at in the Aparo book; Neal's messing around has a George Lucas meddling sort of vibe to it.

That Zany Bob Haney: The Brave and the Bold 104

The Brave and the Bold #104 (November/December 1972)
"Second Chance for a Deadman?"
Bob Haney-Jim Aparo

Doug:  True confession time (again) -- I don't think I've ever read a full Deadman story.  I will say that the character is intriguing to me, and the original stories handled by Carmine Infantino and Neal Adams (particularly Adams) are somewhere on the "to find and read" list.  So while we've taken a nice tour of the Haney/Aparo Brave and the Bolds, I'll be coming to at least half of this team-up tabula rasa.  I'm thinking Haney could get real zany with this subject matter.  By the way, as I was preparing to read/write this, my sons came home from work, and the 20-year old (who is somewhat "into" comics) asked what was in the Legends of the Dark Knight - Jim Aparo, Volume 1 book.  I thumbed through it with him, showing him the various Batman team-ups.  But when I got to that one with the Atom I stopped and explained it.  They just cracked up and the older says, "Who would write a story like that??"  Bob Haney, dude.

Doug:  If there's one thing I've come to appreciate about Bob Haney, it's that he doesn't give a rat's rear end whether or not Batman is in or out of character, if the plot makes any sense at all, or how much collateral damage he leaves as he sews up a story.  Continuity be damned, sayeth he!  So when Batman grabs a machine gun and takes off after some heavily-armed hoods, to the chagrin and amazement of Commissioner Gordon, we have a Batman not seen since the Golden Age.  But it's all a ruse, as the machine gun was loaded with blanks.  Gordon's men were able to cover the Dark Knight as he made what appeared to be a suicide run.  But it made the car thieves nervous, skittish.  And when one had the courage to level his pistol at the Batman, it was Gordon who saved his friend's life with a bullet of his own.  When the two lawmen approached the corpse, they discovered that the leader was a Waxey Doyle; but Gordon said the deceased didn't look like Doyle.  Once in the morgue, Batman ordered a complete autopsy -- and you know what?  Ol' Waxey had received, at some point, a total makeover.  A further investigation by the Caped Crusader showed that several of the Most Wanted had been turning up in no way shape or form as they should have appeared.  Something big was going down with the world's elite criminals.

Doug:  Batman's aware that there are places who will totally remake a criminal's identity, but neither he or Gordon know where to find one.  Until they find a matchbook in Doyle's pocket -- the Pygmalion Spa in Cornucopia, Florida.  The Dark Knight is on the next plane.  Landing, he wears the guise of Mr. Howard Sanford and is introduced to Lilly Lang, his "directress to a new life".  She shows "Sanford" around the place, and he begins to engage in the activities.  Different denizens remark at what good shape he's in, but it's played off.  One day Batman spies Lilly with a man; he's told it's her boyfriend, and he watches them steal away to a part of the compound he's told is off-limits.  What more could a Batman need?  The next night, "Sanford" swims across the lagoon and hops the fence -- only to receive a beatdown from a couple of guards.  This begins a trend in this story that we've seen Haney employ in the other tales I've reviewed, and that is the "unaware" Batman.  For a guy who is supposed to be the world's greatest detective, the ultimate human fighting machine, and a peak physical specimen, he sure gets taken down pretty easily.

Doug:  Sensing that he's going to need a little help on this one, the Batman takes out an ad in a newspaper -- we don't know which paper, though.  It's designed to draw out one Boston Brand -- Deadman!  And the strategy works right away, because we only have a limited amount of pages to tell this story.  Wherever Brand had seen the ad, he hits the winds and makes his way to Gotham City, where the Batman has returned and is in counsel with the Commissioner.  Brand drops into the room, and indeed into the Commissioner to possess him.  Once aware that Gordon is no longer himself, Batman and Deadman cut the deal -- Deadman will go back to the Pygmalion Spa, take over the body of Lilly's boyfriend, Richie Wandrus, and gather enough evidence to blow the lid off the operation.  Before he leaves on the mission, however, Deadman is visited by Vashnu and the spirit of Rama Kushna (you'd have to have read some previous Deadman stories to be fully up to speed on this -- fortunately, I've read a few articles about Deadman, so I wasn't totally in the dark).  Rama Kushna tells Brand, "Hark to me, my son... a man, a spirit in love, may only gain his heart's desire by... losing it!  For is not love stronger than death itself?"

Doug:  Once at the spa, Brand immediately infiltrates Wandrus and begins to interact with Lilly.  He soon realizes he may be in over his head, as he begins to encounter hoods who know him.  But he sells it well enough to get by.  But as he gets closer to Lilly, Brand finds that he rather likes this return to the corporeal world -- in effect, he's falling for Lilly!  To make matters worse, he's apparently a better lover, more sensitive guy, you name it -- but Lilly likes the change in "Richie" as well!  They even talk about going straight, making enough money to retire from the spa, and going away together.  Boston Brand is falling hard.  But when the Batman confronts Brand about the lack of evidence he's gathered, Brand reveals his struggles with his feelings.  The Dark Knight will hear none of it, and orders Deadman to see this through.

Doug:  Deadman, now grasping at straws as to how to please both Batman and himself, decides the only way to handle all of it is to come clean with Lilly.  He decides to fess up to her... and you know what?  She buys it!  Brand is more committed than ever to get Lilly to go straight, so they can indeed retire together.  He gets the evidence Batman had already stored up, invading Bruce Wayne's body while Wayne slept.  With the situation now irrevocably complicated, Batman feels that he must now do this alone.  Heading back to Pygmalion, Batman takes the guise of one Whitey Blaine -- but just as clumsily screwing it up as he'd done before, Batman had picked the identity of a recently-deceased hood!  Lilly orders the plastic surgeon staff to now make Holt Gannigan -- Public Enemy #1 -- look like "Whitey Blaine", and vice versa; in effect, Bruce Wayne will be altered to look like the worst criminal in the world!  Of course, Brand stands right by, in the body of Richie Wandrus, and begins to get very nervous.

Doug:  Bruce Wayne is dumped on a Florida street, not aware that he's been made up to look like Gannigan.  Dazed, he begins to stumble about.  A police cruiser happens by, with Cornucopia's finest fully aware that Holt Gannigan has been spotted in the area.  Looking to bag a big one, they spot "Gannigan" in the street.  With lethal force, they move in and wing him in the shoulder.  Deadman immediately flashes into our view and enters Wayne's body.  Running quickly from the scene into a nearby swamp, Deadman manages to elude the police.  Squatting by a puddle to wash the make-up from Wayne's face and head, Deadman also scrawls a message in the mud.  Feeling that Wayne's been revived a bit, Deadman exits.  As he floats away, Wayne admonishes him to quit feeling for Lilly and to bring her to justice.  Entering the room Lilly shares with Wandrus, Deadman re-inhabits the napping body of Richie.  But Lilly's onto Brand's scheme, and has figured him out to be working with the law.  She draws a gun.

Doug:  At that same moment, the Batman crashes through the window and orders Lilly to drop her weapon -- law agents have the place surrounded!  But Lilly's blinded with rage toward Brand, Richie, Batman -- the whole situation.  She yells at Brand that her payback to him will be to make him watch Batman die.  Recalling the words of Rama Kushna ("Hark to me, my son... a man, a spirit in love, may only gain his heart's desire by... losing it!  For is not love stronger than death itself?"), Brand has an epiphany.  Drawing a small pistol from Wandrus' pocket, Deadman fires at Lilly, saving the Dark Knight while killing her!  Brand reasoned that Rama Kushna's words meant that in his love's death, he would find love -- but what he got instead was nothing.  Having assumed Lilly would take on a phantom form and join him in the spirit world, Brand fled to his own anxieties and disappointments.  And the Batman?  He was left to explain to Richie Wandrus just what had gone on these past days, and why he was under arrest.

Doug:  I really liked this story!  Haney's plots are always dense, with many twists and turns along the way.  And as I'd said near the top, he's never afraid to take characters (and readers) out of their comfort zones.  Think you know how "X" should behave in reaction to a given stimulus?  Think again...  Jim Aparo was solid as always, although I'm really beginning to notice his lack of ability to draw beautiful female faces.  His women aren't "ugly" by any stretch, but next to the work of Nick Cardy, Jim Mooney, John Buscema, or Johnny Romita, Aparo pales in comparison.  But he draws a great Batman, and orchestrates an action sequence well.  Good, early Bronze Age fare!